Saturday, November 2, 2002

Raiders Over Niners. Tomorrow's a big NFL game day in the Bay Area as the 49ers visit the Raiders for the first time in a lot of seasons. I participate in a friendly little NFL picking contest every week (and have for four or five years) made up mostly of 49ers fans. I've become more a follower of the Raiders in the past couple of seasons, though I'm still much more a Niners backer. Tomorrow, though, I expect the Raiders to beat the Niners. Jerry Rice and Charlie Garner, two ex-Niner superstars, are motivated to play hard. The Raiders' home field advantage is at least intimidation. And the Raiders have something to prove here, having lost three straight after opening the season 4-0 and drawing Super Bowl speculation. The Niners, meanwhile, are coming off an important win in their division and have four very tough games immediately ahead against the Chiefs, Chargers, Eagles, and Seahawks. I don't think the Niners will look past the Raiders so much as they'll be hard-pressed to focus intensely on that many games in succession. 11:08:35 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

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